The invention pertains to a protective housing for optical equipment, especially for video surveillance cameras, with a tubular housing shell, and a rear wall with means for introducing or passing through electrical lines. An internal equipment carrier and an external housing carrier are held above and below the housing shell at a fixed distance, parallel to each other.
Protective housings of this type are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,115,263 and 5,214,245 of the same applicant. In both cases, the equipment carrier provided inside the housing and the housing carrier installed underneath the housing are screwed directly to the rear wall. The housing carrier is attached to a bracket and/or to a tilt-and-swivel head slightly below the center of gravity of the entire assembly, so that the housing can also be remotely controlled. After the screws holding the housing shell to the rear wall have been unscrewed, the housing can be pulled out like a telescope, together with the front frame and the viewing window, through the gap between the equipment carrier and the housing carrier, although the optical device, usually a video surveillance camera, remains in its original place. If it is desired to dismount the optical device together with the housing, it is necessary to disconnect numerous electrical connections, which are required for the supply of power, for control purposes, and for signal transmission. U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,245 in particular describes a quite complicated layout of electrical cables.
When, in the case of protective housings of this type, so-called threaded stuffing box joints are used for introducing the cables, a great deal of time consuming work is involved, both during assembly and during disassembly, to thread the cables through the joints, after which the cables must also be connected to numerous terminals inside the housing. When the unit is taken apart, all the connections, which are usually soldered, must then be disconnected again, which is also cumbersome and time-consuming.
It is also known that so-called multiconductor plug couplings, which are exposed to the atmosphere, can be used in protective housings of this type. In this case, however, there are then two sealing problems: first, the sealing problem between the mating parts of the multiconductor plug coupling and, second, the sealing problem between the plug coupling and the rear wall of the protective housing. In addition, multiconductor plug connections of this type which are exposed to the atmosphere are expensive and take up a large amount of space.